Black Boxes No More

In the early 1900s we had scientific management, originated by Taylor and Ford, which analysed workflows for economic efficiency.  Then we had Drucker come along in the 1950s, promoting management by objectives, which defines the results that employees are expected to achieve.  Those management theories generally assume a ‘black box’ for the worker.  There’s an input, and an output, and not much happens in between. 

But knowledge workers process information into something more valuable.  Knowledge work requires, as Cal Newport puts it, recognition of the internal processes within the black box that performs that messy work of producing the output.